In conventional compartmentalized articulate conveyor belts, each compartment is associated with an articulate segment which defines the length and height as well as the width of the compartment. As a result the size of the compartments are fixed by the spacing of the articulate member. Conversely, the spacing of the articulate members is set by the required compartment size; a reasonably large compartment thus requires a large space between articulate members which in turn requires large end wheels that restrict the use of the conveyor in close proximity with other equipment. The size of the compartments once set with respect to the articulate members is permanent and cannot be varied to accommodate different types of goods or different arrangements of the goods in multi-channel systems.